site banner

Culture War Roundup for the week of June 17, 2024

This weekly roundup thread is intended for all culture war posts. 'Culture war' is vaguely defined, but it basically means controversial issues that fall along set tribal lines. Arguments over culture war issues generate a lot of heat and little light, and few deeply entrenched people ever change their minds. This thread is for voicing opinions and analyzing the state of the discussion while trying to optimize for light over heat.

Optimistically, we think that engaging with people you disagree with is worth your time, and so is being nice! Pessimistically, there are many dynamics that can lead discussions on Culture War topics to become unproductive. There's a human tendency to divide along tribal lines, praising your ingroup and vilifying your outgroup - and if you think you find it easy to criticize your ingroup, then it may be that your outgroup is not who you think it is. Extremists with opposing positions can feed off each other, highlighting each other's worst points to justify their own angry rhetoric, which becomes in turn a new example of bad behavior for the other side to highlight.

We would like to avoid these negative dynamics. Accordingly, we ask that you do not use this thread for waging the Culture War. Examples of waging the Culture War:

  • Shaming.

  • Attempting to 'build consensus' or enforce ideological conformity.

  • Making sweeping generalizations to vilify a group you dislike.

  • Recruiting for a cause.

  • Posting links that could be summarized as 'Boo outgroup!' Basically, if your content is 'Can you believe what Those People did this week?' then you should either refrain from posting, or do some very patient work to contextualize and/or steel-man the relevant viewpoint.

In general, you should argue to understand, not to win. This thread is not territory to be claimed by one group or another; indeed, the aim is to have many different viewpoints represented here. Thus, we also ask that you follow some guidelines:

  • Speak plainly. Avoid sarcasm and mockery. When disagreeing with someone, state your objections explicitly.

  • Be as precise and charitable as you can. Don't paraphrase unflatteringly.

  • Don't imply that someone said something they did not say, even if you think it follows from what they said.

  • Write like everyone is reading and you want them to be included in the discussion.

On an ad hoc basis, the mods will try to compile a list of the best posts/comments from the previous week, posted in Quality Contribution threads and archived at /r/TheThread. You may nominate a comment for this list by clicking on 'report' at the bottom of the post and typing 'Actually a quality contribution' as the report reason.

8
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

This assumes that it is possible to not break the law. "Three felonies a day" is exaggerated only in that the number is less than three per day. It's still plenty per career.

Do you pay off pornstars with company money and cook the books to cover it up, conspire to prevent the duly elected President assuming office, or continue to keep a trove of classified docs at your home after the Feds explicitly ask for them back?

None of the things Trump is being charged with are three felonies a day bullshit. All four criminal indictments involve malum in se behaviour - the theory for the false accounting being a felony based on a predicate campaign finance violation is a stretch, but the fact that Trump committed misdemeanor false accounting was clearly established in Court.

  • -19

Trump used his own money to reimburse his lawyer for paying off stormy Daniels; legal expenses is a literally accurate descriptor. And classified docs is quite literally three felonies a day behavior; the fbi found some in Biden’s corvette.

I’m assuming you mean the Georgia case with conspiring to prevent the duly elected president from assuming office. That doesn’t seem a quite accurate descriptor- Trump actually believed he won Georgia and was trying to convince raffensperger to come up with the proof.

How can you know what Trump actually believed?

Have you considered the alternate possibility that he never believed the election was stolen?

  • -10

It prevents otherwise very qualified people from running all the time. If they don't have the pull they must kowtow or have their "crimes" exposed.